Azerbaijan has a rich animation heritage reaching as far back as the 1930s. When looking back at Azerbaijani animations it’s evident there are two phases of production. The first began in 1933, when Azerbaijanfilm Studio began preparatory work with materials imported from Moscow. In that same year they produced the documentaries, ‘Lokbatan’ and ‘The Oil Symphony’ (director B.Pumpyansky), by using the technical animation. It was fully used in the educational film ‘Cat’ (painter Basov) that was shown on the all-union screens by 1938. This film served as an incentive for film studio workers, and a group of entrepreneurs also decided to create a cartoon. The theme of the cartoons was taken from folk tales.

The first fully animated film was produced in 1935 called “Misfortune of Abbas”. Unfortunately, the beginning of the war stopped Azerbaijanfilm Studio’s ability to produce further animation work and the necessary facilities were not provided to the studio until 1965, when the first animation workshop in the studio was opened.

On February 28, 1969, the shootings of the animated film "Jirtdan" (Dwarf) based on the folk tale of the same name were completed. "Jirtdan" was the first film shot after the restoration of the animation workshop of the studio. The film was screened in 1969. Thus, the shooting of "Jirtdan" ushered in the 2nd phase in the history of animated films in Azerbaijan.

"Beautiful Fatma", "Dwarf-Jirtdan", "Fox is going to the pilgrimage", “Tik Tik Khanim”, "Mirror", and “Javanshir” have been considered the most favorite animated films of Azerbaijani children for many years.

The most recent success in the production of animated film was Azerbaijan`s first national animation film in 3D format, "Jirtdan and Tapagoz", which was released in 2012 with the support of the Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture.